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I'm an adventurous introvert from Vancouver, Washington who lives on sleep + "me time." I'm a lover of lifting weights, dinosaurs, real talk and traveling with my husband. I am here to help you move better, lift more, bust the myths of the fitness industry, and inspire you to love the process.

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January 13, 2019

Santorini Greece [an honest review of our 4 day stay]

Oh Santorini, how I wanted to love you so.

I should probably preface this by saying that I was the sickest I have been in YEARS while in Greece. And to make it worse, you can only get natural meds here so no NyQuil for us. Nate was also sick. We didn’t sleep through a single night while here, which meant our bodies couldn’t rest and GET BETTER. I had green goop coming out of my EYES you guys. We thought I had pink eye, but it was just the infection trying to come out of nearly every orphus of my body. I’ll spare you the photos of that.

So although I ate what I’m sure was delicious Greek food, I couldn’t taste it. For our first two days, we did NOTHING. We sat in our room, walked to grab food and tried to not be sick.

Hike From Thira to Oia

That wasn’t proving to work, so we decided to plan out our last two days. We stayed in Thira (Fira), but I knew I wanted to hike from Thira to Oia and walk down to the water under Oia.

This was a day for no make up and a sock bun. At this point we didn’t know that my eyes were’t pink eye so I kept the sunglasses on and face clear of make up just in case. Not ideal for a day that a plethora of photos are going to be taken (in my personal opinion). So crusty chapped lips and goopy eyes for the win. Not exactly the magazine cover Greece photos I had imagined.

Crusty crust face aside, I loved this hike. Hated how I felt, but loved the hike and highly suggest doing it. It takes three to five hours and you get all sorts of views of Santorini. You’re essentially hiking along the ridge, beneath the towns for the majority of the time.

We opted to stop and hike up Skaros Rock. DO THIS IF YOU GO! Our logic was that we were already hiking, you pass it on the way so why not tack it on.

Skaros rock is not for those scared of heights. To actually get on top of the rock (which is the point) you have to scale up the side of it. I was not having it. Nate more or less just pushed me up the rock while I prayed for my life, and then lowered me down…as I continued praying for my life.

You get some pretty sweet views of the town above and the curvature of the island of Santorini itself.

Skaros Rock is about half way. After that, the path continues on towards Oia, passing other small towns and constant views of the water.

The whole point is to get to Oia. For us, we wanted to get down to the water beneath Oia to grab dinner and watch the sunset. Turns out, that sounded terrible by the time we reached the water. We just wanted to go to bed. So we decided we’d come back on our last day when we could really enjoy the setting to it’s fullest.

Volcano Boat Tour

Knowing that this hike would take the life out of me, we planned a Volcano tour the next day where we’d be on a boat and hopefully see pretty things, visit the volcano, the hot springs and watch the famous sunset from Oiya. We happened to do the volcano tour on a special date where there was also a firework show from the actual volcano.

Again, I was super sick and honestly would have rather not been on a boat with 50+ other people. OUTSIDE OF THIS, I suggest doing it and it would have been way more fun if I wasn’t a party pooper. I didn’t go in the hot springs, I didn’t hike up the volcano, and I thought we were stopping to get dinner in Oyia so we didn’t eat beforehand. We were short on time, so we didn’t stop to get food. Also, the picture of the sunset doesn’t even come close to doing it justice.

If you go to Santorini, book this tour and do all the things! You can book almost anywhere as it’s a very common tour. Just choose a company and go. We booked through our hotel…which I don’t suggest staying at, so I am not linking it here. More on that in a bit.

Rent Four Wheelers and Drive Around Santorini

On our last day we didn’t have to catch a flight until 6pm so we rented a four wheeler and rode down to the water beneath Oiya for UH-MAZING food and a chill time on the rocks with the prettiest teal blue water you ever did see. Nate swam and jumped off rocks while I sat on the rocks wiping green mucus off my face. I guuueesss there are worse places to be sick #firstworldproblem. I even mustered up a fake laughing pic just for the blog.

The highlight of our time in Santorini was just riding around the island on the four wheeler. The warm sun blaring, wind in our helmets, near empty roads, and constant views of the ocean. Plus it’s just a great way to get around.

Earlier in the day, we practically had the waterfront to ourselves. Go early, pick a restaurant, eat fresh seafood, and spend your day basking in the sun.

Recap of Santorini

Our take away was that Santorini is a vacation spot. What I mean by that is that there is not much to do. You go there to stay at your hotel, lay out and eat; maybe go on a tour. This is not our type of location. We like natural beauty and to DO THINGS. Again, this was probably one of the best locations to be sick when we look back on it.

The water is beautiful, the people are nice, and it is 100% a picturesque location. But I wouldn’t go back. My suggestion is to GO BIG if you really want to go here. Stay in a resort in Oiya. We were on a TIGHT budget when we booked this way back when. So we stayed outside of Oiya and in a cheaper hotel. While our particular room was quite nice, you don’t go to Santorini for a budget vacation. If there was openings and we weren’t sick, we probably would have upgraded to another hotel.

That’s Santorini for you. It was on the bucket list and now it’s not. Next up, Cinque Terre, Italy – where we finally get NyQuil and are able to sleep 10+ hours a night. Oh the glory of Western Medicine.

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I'm an adventurous introvert from Vancouver, Washington who lives on sleep + "me time." I'm a lover of lifting weights, dinosaurs, real talk and traveling with my husband. I am here to help you move better, lift more, bust the myths of the fitness industry, and inspire you to love the process.